"A bowling ball WHAT?!" That's the reaction of most people who first see or hear about bowling ball mortars. Yes, they really do shoot and can launch a bowling ball almost a mile, or a much shorter distance (depending on the powder and angle of elevation). This is important if you don't have a long field to shoot in. You can easily drop a bowling ball inside 200 yards. [More]Yeah, I know-- you don't need it to hunt deer.
[Via Steve T]
In New England, you could hunt duckpins with it.
ReplyDeleteBut if you want to hunt deer with a bowling ball cannon, you'll need a suppressor. Which I imagine would be rather unwieldy.
ReplyDeleteI have a mortar, but it's not a bowling ball mortar. It's a 3" bore, 6 caliber mortar, and I use 15 oz green bean cans, half full of cement and weighing just about a pound, as projectiles. Powder charge to launch them is about an ounce of 1F black powder, and at high elevation (about 75 degrees), it'll go almost 300 yards.
ReplyDeleteThey fly like a giant shotgun slug, or a demonic shuttlecock.
Man portable, too: One man can pick it up. Two men can carry it, and four can easily carry it long distances.